Feature Articles

Muriel McAvoy's Sugar Baron takes us on a journey through the rise of Manuel Rionda and the establishment of the Cuba Sugar Cane Corporation as well as the history and economics surrounding the relations between the Cuban and United States sugar trade. From a boy growing up in Spain, longing to follow his brothers to America, to the president of a giant corporation crossing multinational financial networks, we watch Rionda develop as a savvy businessman.

A self-described merchant, Rionda was summoned to Havana in the early 1870s to begin learning the trade from his uncle, an established merchant in western Cuba. This training took him out of Cuba and into Maine where he attended school to master the merchant trade. Later, he would move to New York, where his story truly begins.

McAvoy traces the challenges put forth to Rionda as he strives to gain a strong foothold in the industry, despite stumbling in the beginning. It was his charm, Spanish courtesy, and merchant's craft that allowed him, while among bankers and investors of different countries, to raise the money he would need to dominate the world of Cuban sugar.

This historical compilation would do well to supplement studies on multinational investing as well as economic relations between Cuba and the United States.